Craig Shoemaker grew up in Wyndmoor, graduated from Springfield Township High School and majored in radio, TV and film at Temple University. His first paying job as a stand-up comic was at the now-defunct Casa Conti in Glenside, but when he was just 13, he worked at the Block ’N Cleaver in Flourtown, where Halligan’s Pub is today.

In 1980, I saw Shoemaker, then a Temple student, perform at Rick’s Cabaret in Center City, and then later at The Taproom in Ambler. I hate to brag, but I predicted major showbiz success at the time for Shoemaker. If my predictions for sporting events were as good as that one, I could have retired years ago.

Since then, Shoemaker has had impressive success in show business, winning two Emmy Awards for his work as a writer, actor and producer for the regional TV network, PRISM. For 45 years, he has been performing stand-up comedy, writing scripts and producing TV shows and movies.

This month, the show biz vet and epitome of local-guy-makes-good will bring his national stand-up comedy tour to the Celebrity Theater at Claridge in Atlantic City on July 17 and 18 and then to the Sellersville Theater in Bucks County on July 25.

“Out of everything in my career, I am most proud of winning Comedian of the Year at the American Comedy Awards show” in 1998, Shoemaker told the Local in an earlier interview. “After all, other winners were Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld and Jeff Foxworthy. My plan is to continue to do stand-up comedy until I have enough money to retire, which means I will call it quits when I am about 200 years old.”

Shoemaker still lives on the West Coast, and has appeared in TV series including “Parks and Recreation,” “Matlock,” and had a cameo in the movie “Scream 2.” But his comedy has also taken a serious turn. He is using his comedic background in places other than a TV/movie set or theater stage.

He is the founder of Laughter Worx, a corporate training company that uses non-comedic laughter techniques to shift workplace culture. Shoemaker has also created Laugh Bath™, a practice described as “a guided, neuroscience-informed group experience that uses intentional laughter, breath work, and human connection to reduce stress and regulate the nervous system in real time.” His LaffApp is a wellness app blending neuroscience and humor, and his nonprofit forum “Laughter Heals,” delivers some laughs to those who are suffering from cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

All of it, from stage to workshop session, reflects Shoemaker’s core belief that humor is the shortest distance between two people. Humor has served as a valuable tool during times in his life when interpersonal connection was a challenge.

In his autobiography, “Lovemaster’d: A Digital Journey to Love and Happiness,” he discusses his troubled youth when he often woke up in a “drug, sex or alcohol-induced fog.” Shoemaker learned to use humor as a defense when he was bullied and ridiculed for his then small stature and bad luck with girls.

“The other kids pulled up my underwear so much, I feel like I invented the thong,” he told the Local. “I really didn’t have much choice but to turn to comedy. I had to make all the bigger kids laugh to keep them from picking on me.”

It worked. Comedy got him out of a lot of trouble, and it didn’t hurt that he shot up seven inches in high school. In the years since, Shoemaker has performed in every major comedy venue in the country, appeared in more than 100 TV shows, and was a regular on “Hollywood Squares.” He wrote “The Love Master,” co-starring Farrah Fawcett and Courtney Thorne-Smith, which won best film at the Independent Film Festival in Los Angeles in 1997.

Shoemaker has had his own nationally syndicated radio show, “The Last Stand-Up,” which, after only 10 months on the air, won the prestigious Communicator Award “Crystal” prize.

For more information, visit craigshoemaker.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.